


Group Projects

by sashawiremarryme



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Jupeter Week, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 04:18:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15833610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sashawiremarryme/pseuds/sashawiremarryme
Summary: Usually, Juno and Benzaiten Steel are an inseparable duo at Hyperion High School, but a last minute seating change leaves Juno stuck with a different partner for this group project. A very distracting partner.





	Group Projects

**Author's Note:**

> So my last couple of penumbra fics have been kind of heavy (and then that episode came out so now I'm sad and afraid) so who wants a high school au to make us all feel better.
> 
> Or just make myself feel better... that works as well.
> 
> Rules: no Sarah Steel or Ramses O'Flaherty allowed

“C’mon Supersteel, are you gonna take the case?” Benzaiten Steel smiled at his brother with anticipation. Juno wasn't as happy about the situation. 

“You losing all of your pens isn't a case,” Juno responded, “you always lose things.” 

“Yes, I know, but—" Ben replied a little too loudly. 

“QUIET IN THE BACK!” Juno and Ben turned to their teacher, Ms Proctor, glaring at them. “There will be no talking in this class.” She walked towards them. “Mr Steel, would you like to share your conversation with the class?” Juno and Ben glanced at each other, then back at their teacher. 

“Which on—" Juno started. 

“Thank you for volunteering, Mr Steel. Now, would you like to share your conversation with the class?” Proctor asked again. 

Juno stood up. “Not really, no.” Proctor glared at him, looking like she wanted to kill him. Most of the class were just happy for the distraction, taking advantage of Proctor's preoccupation with Juno to pass each other notes or exchange homework so they could copy answers off each other. He heard Ben sigh. This wasn't exactly new behaviour for Juno. 

“Ms Strong,” she called out to someone at the front of the class. “Gather your books, you'll be swapping seats with Mr Steel.” Juno opened his mouth to ask which Steel but the glare she gave was enough to convince even him that he should probably keep his mouth shut. 

When Proctor walked away he heard Ben whisper out of the corner of his mouth, “Nice going, Supersteel.” He grabbed his stuff and followed Proctor to the front, passing the student she had called out to earlier, Strong or something like that, who shoved him while Proctor's back was still turned. He sat down in the newly vacant seat. He was on the far right side of the room, there was a wall to his right and another student he didn't know to his left. The student was lean, almost too tall for the chair, and sitting in a position that looked unnatural and uncomfortable. When he caught Juno staring, he met his gaze and flashed a smile, briefly showing off a set of very sharp teeth. Juno looked away, flustered. He decided it might be worthwhile to pay attention to the lesson, just to ignore the stranger that was now staring at him. 

After a few minutes, he got bored of Proctor. If he was being honest, he didn't even know what the lesson was about. He risked a glance at the kid sitting next to him, he had stopped looking at Juno and was now taking notes, at least Juno assumed they were notes. Juno couldn't decipher them during his brief look before he turned away, he didn't want to stare at this kid's notebook for too long, Proctor would probably accuse him of cheating if she caught him. He looked out the window instead and tuned out Proctor's lecturing. 

He didn't know how long he sat like that, oblivious to the world around him, before a gentle shake and a soft voice snapped him out of his daydream. “Juno,” the stranger next to him lifted his hand off Juno’s shoulder, “were you listening?” 

“Huh? Yeah, I was listening.” Juno lied. He was trying to work out who this guy was, he didn't know his name and felt too awkward to ask him since he knew Juno’s. 

“So, when did you want to meet up?” He waited for his response. Juno had no idea what he was talking about. “When did you want to meet up and do the group project?” He clarified, detecting his confusion. 

“Uhhh" Juno wasn't used to making plans with others, usually, he only hung out with his brother, and they didn't exactly need to plan when they would meet up. 

“Are you free tonight?” He offered. “Excellent” he continued after Juno didn't protest, “I'll meet you after school, at your locker perhaps?” The bell rang, signalling the end of the period, before Juno could respond, his partner left, and Ben ran over to him. 

“Sooooo…” Ben grabbed Juno in a half-hug-half-tackle, “what was it like at the front of the class? Did you managed to absorb all this information?” He asked while gesturing at the board to emphasise his point. Juno just glared at him. “Okay, okay, no jokes, I get it.” Ben raised his hands defensively. 

 

Their next teacher was Miasma, who really didn't care what the students were doing. So he used the class to message Rita instead. He needed her help. 

“Can you find out a student's name for me?” He sent her. He glanced around the room, making sure no-one was watching him with his phone out. 

“Not if you ask like that I can't.” She responded almost immediately. 

“Please.” Juno almost verbally groaned when he sent that. Only for Rita, he thought to himself. “What do they look like ;)” He already regretted asking Rita for help. 

“He's tall and lean, and he has dark hair and massive glasses. He's in Proctor's class with me.” He was forced to admit that most of the features he had noticed in his classmate weren't going to useful to Rita. He doubted that a description of how sharp this boy's teeth were would help her find him. 

“This him?” She responded in seconds. Juno looked at the photo she sent. It was him, just several years younger. He'd recognise him by that smile alone: a smirk that made him look bored, as though getting a school photo taken was beneath him. “That was real hard to get,” Rita casually mentioned, “I'm pretty sure that's the only photo of him the school has. He's been sick on school photo day every year but that one.” 

“What's his name, Rita?” Juno messaged her. Rita didn't double text, she was more of a quintuple text kind of girl. Juno just wanted her to stop for a second. 

“Huh,” she answered, “oh, yeah, his name is Rex Glass” Juno read over the name again, committing it to memory. “That was even harder to find!” Juno turned off his phone, he would deal with it later. 

 

Juno spent the rest of the day in a daze. Because he was bored, he told himself, it had nothing to do with a certain classmate with a nice smile that he would be spending the afternoon with. Yeah, nothing to do with that. He wasn't even that pretty anyway. 

At the end of the day, Juno approached his locker in apprehension, only to breathe a sigh of relief (tinged with disappointment, but he would never admit to that) when he saw nobody around. He grabbed his books and slammed the locker door shut. 

“That seemed unnecessary,” Juno nearly jumped as Rex appeared, leaning against the lockers in the space his locker door had just hidden from his view, “whatever did your poor locker do to deserve that?” 

“It's the lock,” Juno justified his actions, “it keeps getting stuck.” 

“I know a little bit about locks,” Rex traced the outline of Juno’s lock with his finger, “I could probably fix it for you.” He offered. 

“I’m sure I’ll manage.” Juno scowled. 

“If you change your mind, the offer is always there.” He stood up. “I hope you don’t mind if we go to your house, my father doesn’t feel comfortable having strangers at our house. He can be rather paranoid.” 

“That’s fine,” Juno muttered, already bracing himself from the mocking he would no doubt be forced to endure from his brother. Ben was always trying to set him up with people, if he saw Rex come over to their house he would probably start planning a wedding already. 

Juno didn’t talk to Rex on the walk over to his house, it wasn’t for a lack of trying on Rex’s part. Every time he tried to start a conversation Juno refused to reciprocate. The closest thing to a conversation the two of them managed to have was when Rex asked Juno how the rest of his classes had been, and Juno shrugged. When they finally arrived at Juno’s house, they opened the door to find Ben and the girl Juno had switched places with in class sitting on the living room floor. 

“Hey, Supersteel!” Ben waved at him when he entered the house. He heard Rex stifle a laugh at the sound of Ben’s nickname for him, the girl made no such attempt. “Who’s your buddy?” Ben continued. He pointed at the girl. “This is Alessandra!” 

“I’m Caesar, Caesar Hall.” The boy smiled at Ben. Juno made a note to himself to never trust anything Rita said ever again. He was suddenly very grateful he had managed to not say Caesar’s name. 

“Huh, I thought your name was Jove.” Alessandra thought out loud. “I have absolutely no idea how you came to that conclusion.” Caesar said with a tone of voice that confirmed that he knew exactly how she had come to that conclusion, he just wasn’t going to share. He turned to Juno. “It looks like this room is taken, shall we find another.” 

“It’s not a big house, Caesar,” Juno told him. 

“Yeah,” Ben confirmed, “The only other room in this house that wouldn’t be super cramped would be our room.” 

“Well, okay, there are other—” Juno started. 

“Sounds perfect,” Caesar interrupted with a smile, apparently oblivious to Juno’s protests. Juno glared at Ben before leading Caesar out of the room. He could hear Ben and Alessandra laughing as they left. He reassured himself that it wasn’t at his expense, but he wasn’t exactly convinced. 

There was no reason for Juno to be there, he quickly realised, Caesar had already completed most of the work before he’d arrived. He spent most of the time trying to talk to Juno, and if he was being honest, Juno didn’t find it completely unpleasant. Just because he wasn’t answering Caesar’s questions with anything more than a shrug and the occasional grunt didn’t mean that he didn’t enjoy hearing his voice. The only time Juno actually spoke to Caesar was to ask to borrow a pen. 

“Should I just leave?” Caesar asked after about the twentieth unsuccessful attempt to pry into Juno’s personal life. “If you don’t want me here you can just say the word and I’ll finish this by myself. You do know that, don’t you?” He stood up and moved closer to the door. 

“Am I really that unpleasant?” Juno joked, hoping his weak attempt at banter would be enough to make him stay. 

“I’m sorry Juno, did you say that? I don’t recognise your voice. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard you speak before.” Caesar responded, feigning surprise. 

“I don’t know Caesar, maybe you just haven’t said anything worth responding to.” Juno jumped to his feet but didn’t close the distance, leaving a few steps between the pair. 

“Juno, if you’re trying to insinuate that I’m not worth talking then I’m happy to point you in the direction of many people who would disagree.” He paused and smiled, the expression of someone who was a bit too proud of themselves. “Your brother for one.” 

“My WHAT?!” Juno yelled back, incredulous. He was nearly certain Caesar was messing with him, but there was a speck of doubt in his mind. 

“Really, Juno,” he continued smirking, “I didn’t take you for the jealous type.” 

“I AM NOT JEALOUS!” Caesar raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “I am not jealous,” Juno repeated, quieter, less forcefully. “I just don’t appreciate you dragging Ben into our argument when he has absolutely nothing to do with this.” He knew he was rambling, but he couldn’t stop himself. “I know you’re lying anyway. I’ve spent my entire life having to hear about every cute person he sees, I know what his type is and you’re not it.” 

“And what’s your type, Juno?” Caesar took a step closer to him, forcing Juno to raise his head slightly to continue looking the taller boy in the eyes. 

“What’s it to you?” He forced himself to keep his answer short, anything more than that would just encourage Caesar. 

“You know, I regret spending so long trying to get you to talk. If you’re just going to be rude, I would rather you were rude quietly.” He took another step towards Juno. 

“A lot of people want me to shut up, you’ll have to wait a while before it’s your turn.” 

“I’m sure I could think of a few ways to expedite the process.” 

“What the hell is th—” He was interrupted as Caesar came closer, much closer. He was so close Juno could smell him. He walked over and leaned in until there were only a few centimetres separating them and placed his hand against Juno’s cheek, caressing his face. Without thinking, Juno closed the remaining distance between them. Instantly, he was wrapped up in the moment, the texture of his lips, the warmth of his body as Caesar wrapped his arms around him, the smell. He was so distracted he didn’t even hear the door open, he only heard the gasp of the person who opened it. 

Juno and Caesar jumped back, away from each other, and turned to face Benzaiten Steel, who was standing in the doorway, with a giant grin on his face. They watched as he tried to compose himself. 

“We were going to order pizza,” he said, sounding as though every word was an effort, “did you guys want anything?” 

“You already know what I want.” Juno muttered quickly, unable to meet his brother’s eye. 

“Yeah,” Ben awkwardly shuffled to face Caesar, “and you?” 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be leaving in a moment.” He gestured at their work. “We were just about done anyway.” Ben followed Caesar’s motions, he looked grateful for the distraction. 

“Wow, you guys are so much faster than we are.” He paused and swivelled around to glare at Juno. “I thought you said you couldn’t find any of my pens!” He reached over and grabbed one of the pens sitting on top of their work. “I guess you’re the thief.” 

“Are you seriously still upset about the pens?” Juno began to bicker. “You probably just left it lying next to your bed or something.” 

As the brothers continued to argue, they didn’t notice Caesar silently excuse himself from the room and leave the house.

 

Juno didn’t see Caesar the next day. He was annoyed by this because in his rush to escape the Steel household he had left most of his things behind, all of which were now taking up space in Juno’s locker. Ben spent most of the day alternating between looking for Caesar and pestering Juno for details about what had happened before he walked into the room. At first, he assumed Juno’s retelling was lies to hide some more interesting version of events, and then he remembered that Juno was a terrible liar. Unfortunately for Juno, he didn’t realise this before he told Rita about what he had seen. Rita spent every moment of their breaks gushing over how cute this boy was and how happy she was to have contributed to their love story—it was at this point where Juno considered telling her she was wrong about Caesar’s name, but he couldn’t do that to her. Even when they were in class, her messages continued, Juno had to keep his phone turned off the entire day. 

The next day, he was running late. Normally this wouldn’t bother him, but today was the day they had to hand in their work. Procter was strict, you had to have the work on her desk by the time class started or else she would start deducting marks, and Juno and Caesar’s work was still locked in Juno’s locker. He wouldn’t care if it was just him on the line, but Caesar had done most of the work and now he was going to lose marks. He was running through the halls. Class hadn’t started yet but it would by the time he got to his locker and back. As he rounded a corner, a strong hand grabbed his arm and pulled him in the opposite direction. He was dragged along by Caesar, whose brisk pace combined with his much longer legs resulted in Juno being forced to lightly jog to keep up with him. 

“I hope you realise you’re going the wrong way.” He pulled him towards Proctor’s classroom. “I know our last conversation didn’t end well, but that’s no reason to not go to class.” He smiled. 

“I wasn’t…” Juno panted, “I was getting the assignment, it’s in my locker.” 

“Assignment?” Caesar stopped for a moment, confused. “Oh! That!” He riffled through his pockets as Juno used the opportunity to catch his breath. “I’ve got that.” He pulled out a folded pile of papers that Juno recognised from the other night. “Now, hurry up.” He walked off again, checking his watch every few seconds. 

“That’s in my locker,” Juno ran after him, “how do you have it?” 

“Obviously it’s not in your locker if I have it.” He stopped and opened the door to Proctor’s room. Juno reached the doorway in time to watch Caesar walk over to Proctor’s desk and place it in front of her. 

“Twenty-three seconds to spare,” she checked her watch, “that was very close.” 

“Close, but not late.” Caesar smiled. Juno grumbled as he sat down, if he had of said anything half as impolite as that to Proctor she would probably have given him detention. Proctor stared at him as he sat down, he half-expected her to punish him for breathing. Then he realised he was sitting at the front, next to Caesar. He sunk into his seat, it would look worse if he moved now, he realised.

 

Later, as he walked to his locker, Ben teased him about that. Alternating between joking that Juno was in love and that Proctor had finally found a way to stop him from being disruptive, sit him next to a pretty boy. Ben earned himself more than one punch in the arm during that walk. He was still teasing as Juno opened his locker. That took less time than usual as the lock didn’t get stuck for once. Ben stopped when Juno opened his locker and hundreds of pens fell out. 

“Hey!” Ben reached down and grabbed a handful of the pens. “Are these all mine?” Juno wasn’t paying much attention to his brother, as the pens rolled out of his locker they exposed a note. It had Juno written on it and a heart drawn next to his name. He grabbed it before Ben could see it and comment. Ben wasn’t looking, he was too distracted by the task of shoving as many pens into his pockets that would fit. Juno used his brother’s distracted state as an opportunity to read the letter. 

Juno,  
I noticed you seem to have lost most of your pens.  
I thought I might lend you a few.  
Love,  
~~Caesar Hall~~  
Peter Nureyev 

Juno looked out at the throng of students that had gathered and were laughing at the twins. He searched this sea of faces for a student he knew must be there. Juno found the face of Caesar Hall, no, Peter Nureyev in the crowd. It was hard to tell at a distance, but Juno could have sworn Nureyev winked at him.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Juno would totally be 'that' kid  
> 2\. alternate title for this is 'The Proctor's Origin Story' tbh


End file.
